Fiserv Inc.'s second-quarter revenue rose 4.2%, to $1.07 billion, from a year earlier as the vendor sold more of its bill payment and account processing software to banks.
The Brookfield, Wis., company said Tuesday that it posted a smaller profit after recording a $61 million pre-tax charge for extinguishing some of its debt early. As a result, Fiserv's net income fell 29%, to $90 million, or 62 cents per diluted share.
On an adjusted basis, Fiserv's earnings of $1.13 per share from continuing operations beat analysts' averaged estimate.
Analysts had predicted Fiserv to earn $1.08 per share, according to Thomson Reuters.
"Our highly valued and differentiated solutions led us to record the largest quarterly sales attainment in the company's history," Jeffery Yabuki, the president and chief executive of Fiserv, said in a press release.
Fiserv sells core systems, payments processing, online banking and mobile software to mostly small and medium-sized banks.
During the quarter, Fiserv said it signed 107 new electronic bill payment clients and 41 debit processing clients. It also received commitments form 135 clients that plan to offer its ZashPay online payments system to their customers. Fiserv last month said it is buying software vendor CashEdge Inc. for $465 million to bulk up its online payments business.
Fiserv competes against Fidelity National Information Services Inc., which last week reported its quarterly revenue rose 13.4%, to $1.44 billion, on higher international demand and growth in account processing activity.
FIS said its net income from continuing operations increased 36%, to $129.3 million, or 42 cents per diluted share.
FIS announced an expanded reseller relationship with Intuit Inc., under which Intuit promotes to its own online banking clients FIS' bill payment software. As a result, FIS said it will gain as many as 500 financial institutions over the next 18 to 24 months from a competing vendor. Analysts have speculated that the vendor is Fiserv.
Fiserv's shares closed down 0.5%, to $61.51, before the company reported its earnings and fell slightly in after-hours trading.
